Summary of Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book.Original book introduction: Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638153368

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Summary

of

Steven Pinker’s

Enlightenment Now

The Case for Reason, Science,

Humanism, and Progress

Table of Contents

Overview

Key Insights

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Important People

Author’s Style

Author’s Perspective

Overview

Steven Pinker’sEnlightenment Now (2018) is a bold defense for the ideas that serve as the foundation for the modern world, as well as an expansive discussion of how those ideas are continuing to make the world a better place for humanity.

Although most were developed in the eighteenth century, the ideas of the Enlightenment are still as relevant today as they were when they first emerged. These ideas include reason, science, humanism, and progress. Reason is a bedrock for the others. When Enlightenment thinkers such as Immanuel Kant applied reason to the world, they began a slow but unstoppable erosion of the power of religion in society. Once applied, the scientific method allowed people to better understand human nature and recognize the similarities shared by all people. Knowing that no group of people was more deserving